Howdy! Pudsey — Restaurant in Leeds

I'm American so every time I see an "American-style" restaurant I like to give it a try. I'm also from Arizona so the "wild west" theme is one I've seen many times.

The restaurant itself is impressive. It looks like an authentic American cowboy restaurant. The interior is well decorated and gives the feel of the Old West. Before opening the menu, I honestly wondered if an American owned it. But then, I opened the menu ;)

Howdys has its own brand of special sauce. Usually this is a steak or bbq sauce. For some reason, this restaurant uses a curry style sauce as its special sauce. Just...no.

Then I see there is no bbq pork, bbq pork ribs, or proper bacon on the menu either. Turkey rashers. Sigh. I asked and the restaurant is owned by an Asian man. Now the menu made more sense.

Soft drinks are small bottled drinks for £3 each so they can charge you for each glass. I hate that British restaurants do this. Its just a way to milk the customer out of more money. Fountain drinks would have a lower overhead cost and refills could be offered.

We ordered the lamb chop starter and the nachos starter. I've NEVER seen lamb chops in a westerns steakhouse, but hey ho. My British partner devoured the lamb chops marinated in howdys special curry flavoured sauce. He said they were the best he had ever eaten.

Nachos are pretty hard to mess up. Tortilla crisps, cheese, jalapeños, and salsa. I asked for salsa on the side and I'm glad I did. Salsa is simple: tomatoes, onions, coriander, a bit of garlic and lime. What they served me was NOT salsa. It was mushed tomatoes. No onion. No garlic. No coriander or lime. Just nasty mashed tomatoes. Again - their own "recipe".

We both ordered burgers. I asked To for no special sauce on mine. To their credit, the food was well presented and the burger was perfectly cooked and served on a brioche bun with chunky chips. This would have been a great time for the server to upsell: mention their rodeo fries or cheesy chips for an additional fee, but he did not.

My British partner loved his burger but thought the chips were sub-standard. I thought the chips were fine but the burger had a hint of gross curry flavour. I suspect they mix it in the beef.

Overall, I'm frustrated. They've built a beautiful place that looks to promise an authentic Wild West American Steakhouse experience. Unfortunately, the owner's decision to use a curry sauce as a steak sauce has ruined the experience. I'm always annoyed when another "American style" restaurant refuses to offer proper American food and chooses instead to offer a poor Asian copy of it and try to pass it off as authentic. If you want to sell American food- sell it right. Tried and true recipes. Proper sauces. I wouldn't put Ranch dressing in a curry and call it an authentic Asian curry. I wouldn't put Bbq sauce and yogurt on chicken and call it authentic Asian tandoori chicken.

If you want to sell Asian-American food, then advertise it as such. No need for the big wild west display if you're just dumping curry sauce on your steaks.

Finally, you have to pay cash. This is a nice sit-down restaurant and they don't have a card machine. How...

Tried here tonight for first time seemed nice and friendly but staff walking up and down past you constantly in circles when it was really quite was a bit annoying and hard to relax. We ordered a starter and our main turned up few mins into eating our starter. Beautiful lamb chops and chicken wings but dry cheesy nachos with only salsa as sauce. Ordered one sirloin and 1 ribeye they were definitely both sirloin. Steaks were not edible as too peppery and chips soo dry but manager took it on chin and said good to know agreed to knock them off bill as we didn't eat them. He insisted on giving us puddings on house so we accepted finally as we happy to pay. When it came to the bill we waited 20 mins for it to be sorted as he kept prioritising other people for him to then try knock 25% off the bill instead but when we challenged this he then only deducted one steak then when we said we aren't paying for two steaks we didn't eat he became unprofessional shouting over from the kitchen and shouted just knock them both off then but charge them for the puddings so basically the two puddings were the price of one steak. We left it at that as we wasn't after a freebie but never heard of a restaurant offering a freebie for their inconvenience and mistakes then changing their minds so the bill works out beneficial to them. That's the reason I'm writing this honest review because it was really unprofessional way to end things and we were respectful enough about their mistakes and approached the issues quietly and didn't make a huge fuss. Lots of staff not wearing masks including manager or staff wearing it under their noses to say we are in tier 3. Staff removed drinks before we had even finished. This place needs a reality check and if you have any concerns with covid I definitely would not...

The food was ok, though looked very sparse as it was literally a burger and chips, no side salad as described in the menu. I had the veggie burger which was potato based so that was a bit bland and soft, the dressing and salad gave it some flavour and texture. A friend had a burger and he said it was quite nice but didn't taste grilled which is how it was described. And my little boy seemed to enjoy his burger too. The prices were reasonable and the service was ok (though our drinks free water were forgotten), though I wouldn't say it was a 'friendly'/chatty service or atmosphere. Howdy was pretty much full and this was at 8:45pm, it is a halal restaurant, and besides myself and my son the clientele are Asian - which isn't surprising as there are few 'American' style halal eateries out there. I'd say give it a try as long as you don't have a baby (see below!).

I 'only' have 2 issues with Howdy, The first and it's a big issue as far as I'm concerned being a mom. Is the baby changing facilities in the womens toilets, it's downright ridiculous! I do not have a baby any more but if someone needs to change their little one, it would mean whoever was inside or outside the toilets would have to wait until mom had finished changing baby!?! This is ridiculous in a restaurant especially at peak times, imagine how the mom would feel having queues waiting whilst shes trying to change a nappy as quick as possible?? Not Good!

My second is that they only take Cash!??!?!?!? Yup you heard me, you cannot pay by card, you have to go to the coop next door and use their cash point and come back to pay for your meal! I mean what restaurant doesn't have a card reader these days? I wouldn't have minded so much if they had said at the start of the meal that it's a cash only restaurant. Or had...